1973-12-03 - Avoca, IA - Unknown

Stationary bright white light that turned red and appeared to envelope the object once it started to move at a high speed.

This sighting occured in a rural area 4.5 miles west of Avoca, Ia. I was home on leave from the Coast Guard, and was visiting my mother and step-father who lived on a farm. Earlier in the day I went to visit a friend on his farm. My friend's farm is located in a hollow area between two hills, therefore I couldn't see much of the surrounding sky. I drove east 1.5 miles to a road that runs north and south. When I turned to go north, I started looking around, and noticed a bright white light low in the southwestern sky. The evening was crystal clear, because we had an ice storm the night before, and the night after an ice storm is usually clear. At first I thought it was an aircraft moving toward me with its landing lights on. To the southwest is Eppley Airport in Omaha, Nebraska, and Offut Air Force Base which is near Omaha. I am also an amature astronimer, and I know there were no planets or bright stars in that area of the sky on that date. I stopped the car and watched the light for a few minutes, then I drove onto the next road and turned west. As I drove home, I noticed when I crested the top of each hill, the light was still in the southwest. The object didn't appear to have moved any, because I took visual measurements using the farm yard lights near the object. When I got home I took out the binoculars, and tried to see if I could make out what it was. All I could see was a very bright white light. I put the binoculars in the house, and went back outside to watch the light. My step-father came out of the house, and wanted to go to town. The town he wanted to go to is Shelby. As we drove west down the hill I saw the bright white light go out, and the object turned to what appeared to be a reddish glow which appeared to envelop the object. The object went from a standstill to a very high rate of speed in just a few seconds. I watched it travel north and inside of a minute or two it was gone. I said to my step-father that the bright white light that I had been watching was acting strange. It was bright white and dead still one second, then it turned red and sped off in the next second. I said to my step-father the U.S. doesn't have any aircraft that can do that. He who is one not to believe in anything strange unless it can be proved, said it was just an airplane or something. I thought it was an "or something". The next day on the front page of the Council Bluffs Nonpariel newspaper was a story about the object I had seen the night before. A woman was driving with her children down a country road to her father-in-law's house to stay with him, because her house didn't have any electricity. The woman said she was driving west and saw the object. She said that when she went over the next hill, she drove right under the object. She said when she drove under the object the bright white light went out, it turned red and sped off to the north. This is occured exactly at the same time I was watching it. I will never forget this sighting as long as I live.